Changing times

1980s saw reactor upgrades, DuPont's departure from SRS

Web posted Sunday, November 26, 2000

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By Heidi Coryell
Staff Writer

The 1980s marked the best and the worst of times at Savannah River Site.

The decade began with the plant setting new production records and hitting peak output, but ended with a change in management and a shutdown of all reactors.

It also was the period immediately preceding the end of the Cold War.

What history records as perhaps the most tumultuous time at the facility was among the most exciting for the employees working there, said Environmental Protection Department Manager Joe Odum.

The early '80s saw restoration efforts on Savannah River Plant's L-Reactor, which had been on standby since 1968. Work on the heat exchangers for the fuel disassembly basin, where old fuel is taken to cool, was an integral part of the effort to get the reactor back online, a job completed by 1983. SPECIAL

``That increase in production, everything we were trying for might have been what broke the back of the Russian economy,'' said Mr. Odum, who has worked at the plant for 27 years. ``That last push ... I think that certainly was part of it.''

The federal government made millions of dollars available for repairs and upgrades to the facility. In 1980, the Department of Energy budgeted more than $350 million to pay for improvements to the plant's deteriorating reactors after it became apparent that the plant was wearing out after thirty years of operations.

And within three years, the L-Reactor, which had been on standby since 1968, was restored and brought back online. Once the reactor was restored, operations began to occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

``Savannah River Site, since the very early days, is kind of a city that never sleeps,'' Mr. Odum said. ``Early on in the '80s we were trying to maximize the amount of time reactors were up and making product, they were pushing lots of material through there (and) at the same time they were trying to hold down environmental emissions.

``It was an interesting time.''

As equipment was being modernized and upgraded, the plant's workers - many of whom had been there since it opened in 1950 - began to reach retirement age. New employees were being hired and trained at a rate unmatched since the facility first opened.

SRS went from hiring between 25 and 30 employees a year to bringing on roughly 500 new workers annually. The personnel department alone couldn't handle the influx, so every employee stepped up to help in the hiring effort.

``We all became interviewers and hosts for people coming from all over the country,'' Mr. Odum recalled.

But in 1987, the plant's operating contractor - DuPont - declined to renew its contract with the DOE, citing the increasingly controversial nature of operating a nuclear facility.

An Aiken Fabricators employee removes the DuPont name and logo from a Savannah River Plant sign in 1989. Westinghouse took over operations after DuPont decided not to renew its contract. FILE/STAFF

On Oct. 29, 1987, E.F. Rupme, vice president of petrochemicals for DuPont, notified the Department of Energy and Savannah River Site that - after 27 years - his company would no longer continue to run the plant after Sept. 30, 1989. His letter to officials and employees said DuPont no longer was ``uniquely qualified'' to operate the plant, as it was in 1950. He also cited a concern for the government's reluctance to continue to protect his company from liability.

There had been rumors around the plant that DuPont was planning to pull out, but the announcement itself was somewhat unexpected, Mr. Odum said.

``It was a surprise and a shock,'' he said. ``It was something that you had grown to expect - that this was the company you were going to work for.

``It was a little scary at first. But there was also an idea of new management, new ideas, new career paths, and certainly we felt like if you had experience here that they would value that experience.

``And I think that has been the case.''

One of the reasons DuPont decided to leave was increasing attention from watchdog groups and those who opposed the idea of nuclear weapons.

The Nature program Wild Kingdom filmed an episode at Savannah River Plant in April 1980. Host Marlin Perkins (center) was escorted around Par Pond by Dr. I. Lehr Brisban (left), who worked with the ecology lab. SPECIAL

Early on, protesters and activists fought to block the L-Reactor's start-up. And the plant's 30-year-old system of controlling radioactive materials and protecting the off-site population came under increasing scrutiny.

By the late 1980s, the reactor's power was systematically decreased as government oversight concerning the safety of emergency coolant systems and reactor assemblies increased.

``There were two or three organizations in South Carolina that were watchdog groups over SRS,'' Mr. Odum said. ``That was a fun time. You know all these people on a first-name basis, and we agreed to disagree on some things. It was not exactly a game, but a mutual admiration.''

As activism grew, DuPont's time was spent increasingly on activity that was ``not part of its business mission,'' officials said.

In summer 1988, the plant's three reactors were shut down for safety upgrades, maintenance and establishment of new operating procedures. A year later, Westinghouse became the new operating contractor of the site amid concern from federal officials that the nation's only source for weapons-grade plutonium and tritium was unable to replenish a decaying supply.

Those who had spent their lives working in the reactors shifted to testing and refurbishing the shut-down equipment.

The Defense Waste Processing Facility, which removes radioactive waste from underground tanks and turns it into glass, was first implemented during the decade. The system still is used today.

``That was really a changing period of time,'' Mr. Odum said. ``In my line of work, it was an exciting time.''

Reach Heidi Coryell at (706) 823-3215.

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